Group Re-Read: #39 The Hidden

[anijen21]

as soon as black market Escafil Devices emerge then that security feature becomes entirely pointless. If even one morph-capable person gives out the technology to shady people, the whole system is compromised.

though I'm kind of talking out of my ass, I never even considered them using a password or some telepathic code to engage the technology. I really just thought you had to touch it.

[DinosaurNothlit]

The only thing that contradicts this is 39 as far as I can recall, and that was a weird book written by someone not named KA Applegate.

Nope!  That was not the only book in which someone has gained morphing powers without a morph-capable person holding the cube.  In book 49, Loren touches the cube to gain her morphing powers.  Tobias was the only one present, and he wasn't touching the cube at the time.

So, yeah, I'm with anijen on this point.  I think that having an Andalite holding the cube was just a ritual of theirs or something.  Maybe they wanted to make it seem like an Andalite needed to be there to confer the morphing power, possibly to deter others from trying it themselves, but I think that is not strictly necessary.

And I also agree that it would be a pretty lame security feature anyway.  Once one shady person gives up the morphing power, the whole system is ruined.  I guess I could see the Andalites being arrogant enough to maybe think that wouldn't happen, but come on.  They aren't dumb enough to make it so easily bypassed, if they're going to put security on it at all.  I've always kinda wondered why they didn't make the technology species-specific.  You know, give the blue boxes some kind of DNA filter?

The inventors probably didn't have the war in mind at all when they made the thing, becuase the war and the invention of the device are two different things that just happen at around the same time.

Yeah, that's probably it.

[Gafrash]

This topic is making me feel hell technical, and is bringing the pedantic out in me. 

...book 49, Loren touches the cube to gain her morphing powers.  Tobias was the only one present, and he wasn't touching the cube at the time...

Wasn't #49:The Diversion also Ghostwritten?!?!?!?!

I agree with, Chad28, Prince Escafil would have gone through a series of designs before the first perfected device . And, yes, I imagine it being more thought-interfaced, than physical contact. But that still means there is a certain level of intelligence required to activate and maintain the process. A feat which would be really hard for non-sentient creatures to easily perform, unlike the story in this book suggests in the buffalo and ant subjects. An ant is established to be a mindless warrior, with barely any visual senses, for crying out loud!!!!

No offensive, but I find that totally ludicris; the device would be a danger if it fell into enemy hands with or without a morph capable enemy because, well, then it would make them morph capable. Scientist typically aren't thinking secruity risk, they want it to work and then they'll worry about accidents.
Plus for people like aldrea who got the ability in secert; I don't think they went up to the friends mom and said I need you to hold this for me while I turn work it.
I think it would have to be willfully turned on, but you can't need someone else for it

...I guess I could see the Andalites being arrogant enough to maybe think that wouldn't happen, but come on.  They aren't dumb enough to make it so easily bypassed, if they're going to put security on it at all.  I've always kinda wondered why they didn't make the technology species-specific.  You know, give the blue boxes some kind of DNA filter?

The inventors probably didn't have the war in mind at all when they made the thing, becuase the war and the invention of the device are two different things that just happen at around the same time.

Yeah, that's probably it.

EXACTLY! These are good points!
The Morphing Power is the Andalite's greatest technology. Since its inclusion in the military, wouldn't the highly-intelligent-technologically-advanced Andalite scientists have come up with a failsafe for PRECISELY this reason. Say, a refusion of transfer to a non-sentient being.

[spoiler]I, too, don't recall the Anis themselves transferring the power, but only the Andalites Elfangor and Ax. After the events of #50:The Ultimate, I always imagined it was Visser Three who was in charge of the Blue Cube, since the Tom-Controller, Arbron and the other Taxxons hinted to the Visser being the one who really dictated those of his followers who got the power. It's why the Tom-Controller wanted out. It's why the Taxxons rebelled...
[/spoiler]

[Gafrash]

Enquiry: Could this also have been the book in which the Anis did the most number of morphings?!

[Chad32]

That's a good question, and I don't know. Has anyone ever compiled a list of morphs per book? I think 18 had a lot of morphing, when they went to the Leeran homeworld.

[maidaneze]

OK ill try to answer the first question. Lets suppose that the main condition for morphing is communicating the message to do it to whatever makes you morph. So, lets also suppose that morphing takes time because you need to produce the energy required to open a link with zero space so you can get rid of excess of mass or get mass from there. Then the only way to do it would be by communicating via the nervous system to the whole body. Also, as opening a link to zero space requires a lot of energy, then you would need the wole body to cooperate so you need to pass the command to the whole body for it to work. Then to pass the message to the whole body you would need to use most of your brain function. That includes the areas of the brain required for sensory perception and the areas for cognitive reasoning. The humans have a very big frontal lobe and that allows us to reason fairly well (well most of us XD). However, we have relatively less area of the brain dedicated to sensory perception. So if we assume the buffalo uses those areas of the brain to rely the message, then voaila we have got a morphing capable buffalo. This also aplies to the ant. Of course this would make it far easier for the animals to morph as they only need to sense what they are morphing to start the process, but they have poorer control over it.
I hope this is a satisfactory enough answer and anyone who has taken one course of college is welcome to tear this argument to shreds.
Good night.

[Gafrash]

I think what maidaneze said above there is sound to a certain extent. But the idea behind morphing, I think, was that the Andalites are a telepathic species (they communicate telepathically and create technological designs surrounding that mode in one way or another) and created a process that requires a level of intelligence to activate and maintain.
There is something sensory to it, sure, especially when regarding the acquiring stage. But with the morphing itself, I think it's more of a mental concentration. There is nothing to suggest that bufallos and ants (for the sake of the story) can conceive the idea of turning INTO another animal.
Can an ant SEE something proportionally gigantic, such as a human, and INTEND to turn into it?! The bufallo did this multiple times, I know. But this had more to do with suggesting a sort of an emotional bond with Cassie, conveyed through mimicking her morphing and speaking and following her around, than sensory.

[WlkngCntradctn]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned - I only skimmed the thread - but is it just me or does this book change the rules on what gives off 'morphing energy' from previous books?  Didn't the Ani's need to actually be going through the process of morphing to give it out back in MM #1?  But here it says that simply being in morph will give off the detectable signal. I forget how it was in the previous book with the Helmacrons. They mostly just seemed interested in the cube more than the morphers.

Of course, the swarm monster ("pet" in Yeerk-ese, I forget the word) was a different creature than the Helmacrons, so maybe that's why they detected things differently.